Marketing4Solicitors Toolkit / Issue M4S 3 Make your website more effective HOW TO... Bring in new leads for you every single month without you having to leave your desk! Turn your website into a lead generation machine. Next Month: I will teach you how to change your website to obtain free Google traffic BONUS! Obtaining testimonials that work
Welcome back. How to turn your website into a lead generation machine. Introduction If you joined Marketing4Solicitors and only ever applied one lesson to your practice, I would strongly advise you to pay the closest attention to this one. The reason is simple; if you apply the advice in this lesson and the following ones when they relate to your website correctly, it will become a regular and constant supplier of leads for your practice. I have developed websites for businesses and generated tens of thousands of pounds worth of fees every single month for law firms when previously they were generating nothing from their website. It is without doubt one of the most powerful lessons and if your website is not working hard for you at the moment, this lesson alone could transform it. My Experience To explain why I have expertise in the area of websites, particularly, it is worth looking at my history since leaving practice. When I left the law I was practising in the field of personal injury claims. You will appreciate this is a competitive sector. When I left the law to set up my marketing consultancy due to my experience in personal injury claims, and my expertise in the area of claims against the Motor Insurers Bureau, I knew an awful lot of personal injury solicitors. On leaving practice a lot of these solicitors asked me to generate personal injury claims for them. I explained that I could market their business by building them a website and generate regular leads for them which would be the best course of action for their business. However, they all came back with the same response Please do it for us Nick and we will pay you for the leads. Please let me make it abundantly clear; when I left the law I had absolutely no intention whatsoever of setting up a claims company. I had spent 14 years practising personal injury law and fighting for justice for innocent accident victims. The thought of becoming a Claims Company, knowing what solicitors generally thought of them was certainly not at the top of my list. I explained to the solicitors that it would be much better for them to build a resource that would generate claims for them rather than a resource which would ultimately be for my benefit. However, they kept on saying Do it for us Nick and we will just pay you for the leads. Pausing for a moment I want to ask you what is my definition of marketing. Hopefully you can immediately answer Client s First, can you?
Bearing this in mind, I finally had to relent and do what my clients kept asking me to do. This led to the birth of 1stClaims.co.uk. In hindsight, starting 1stClaims has been the best decision I have ever made. The reason is simple. I have spent tens of thousands of pounds advertising and promoting the 1stClaims website and tested different marketing methods. We have managed to successfully generate millions of pounds worth of fees for our solicitors as a result of these advertising campaigns, but the most important point is that it has allowed me to pass on all of the testing, success stories and mistakes to you and to all of my clients. your website then you cannot help but increase the profits of your practice. Thank you. Nick Jervis Solicitor (non-practising) Your contents. Now at this point you may be scratching your heads. Why would I spend thousands of pounds marketing a website, learning what works and what doesn t and then pass this on to you? My reason is simple, my main business is to make solicitors more profitable. I believe that solicitors should be the first port of call for an accident claim but that has not happened as solicitors have not spent the time or money investing in the marketing of their businesses or ensuring that their message is received before any claims company. Through my Marketing4Solicitors ToolKit and my consultancy services I am trying to change that as I believe that it is the future (i.e. less claims companies and even less solicitors, but those surviving marketing their businesses incredibly well). These are the clients that I will be working with in the future and why I want to ensure you prosper. This is why I pass on all of my experience and lessons to help you to thrive. Conclusion I hope you understand why I consider myself to be an expert in website marketing and I hope you take the time to carefully review this month s lesson and apply it to your own practice website. I guarantee if you do, you will see incredible results and if you carry on applying the tools I will pass on to you over the next few months to generate more traffic for Details Page This Month s Big Lesson 4 Part 1 4 Part 2 5 Part 3 9 Bonus 9 Coming Up In The Next Issue 11 Appendix Legal Marketing Precedents Website Design Layout LMP 11 Website Design Example LMP 12 Client Testimonial Form LMP 13
This Month s Big Lesson. How to turn your website into a lead generation machine Part 1 Why Most solicitors that I work with for any length of time are generating new leads every single month from their website. When they tweak the sales process (i.e. converting more leads into clients see the Sales Process ToolKit for more information) their website soon becomes a new source of client capture when previously it was achieving little or nothing. Wouldn t you like your website to be bringing in new leads for you every single month without you having to leave your desk? This is the reason this form of marketing is so attractive to solicitors. I understand that generally solicitors enjoy doing what they do best; i.e. looking after their clients. Website marketing allows you to generate new leads and clients without leaving your desk, and if done well it will achieve this every single month. If you only apply the changes in terms of layout and content that I go through today, you will have some success. However, if you grow your website over the course of the next few months (and I will show you how to) you will start to see incredible results leading to tens of thousands of pounds of additional income that you are not currently receiving. As there is little expense in generating this income this will lead to an immediate increase in your profits without the need to recruit new staff or obtain new premises. Shall we begin?
Part 2 How How to make your website more effective. There are various aspects that require attention, and in this lesson I do not want to deluge you with everything although I am going to provide you with the most important ones so that you can make immediate changes to your website for immediate returns. The core components of a successful client capture website are: 1 Content; 2 Layout; 3 One purpose per page. I will deal with each of these but in reverse order as the last one is really the most important one and the one that most people never quite grasp. One purpose per page So often I review solicitors website and after reading a page which may or may not engage me, I am left with nothing to do at the bottom of a page. If you do not know what you expect your clients/prospects to do at the end of every single page on your website, how can you expect them to know? Please take some time to think about this. Your client visits your website (your online premises) and they read the content on one of your pages. They reach the end of the page and then they are left hanging around. It is like a client walking into your reception area and being left to read your brochures and no one in the office making any contact with them. You would not do this in your office so why do it online? Every page on your website must have one purpose and one purpose only. If you review your website now and read each of your main pages, is your client given a call to action, i.e. one thing they must do to conclude their visit to that page of your website? Every page of your website is a sales page. Remember the PASTOR system from Lesson (LMP 6). You must make an offer at the end of each page and then Rally the prospect to take action. For instance, if a client is reviewing a conveyancing page and considering using your services, the obvious choice would be to allow you to capture their name and contact details so that you can provide them with a quote. At this point I would highlight a point I make later on in the lesson, you should never have an instant online quote form on your website. If you currently have an instant online calculator on your website you should test the removal of it. I worked with a company in the past that were generating a lot of enquiries on a daily basis. These disappeared the moment they switched on an instant online quote calculator. The reason is simple, once someone has a price from you they see no need to talk to you about that price and there is absolutely no chance of you detailing the benefits of your service to them. I have mentioned in the advertising lesson and will again at length in this one, that you are much better spending your time promoting lead capture as
Title. body opposed to trying to create instructions from a one page advertisement or one page of your website. If you have a data capture form at the end of a conveyancing page, that simply asks for a name, email address, telephone number and details of the transaction, you will have a much better chance of turning that prospect into a client by being able to follow them up until they instruct you or tell you to go away. If you keep an instant online calculator on your page, they will obtain the price and then use that to contact other solicitors. I have seen this on numerous occasions and I know that this is the case so if you do have an instant online calculator, disable it now and put an AWeber form on the page immediately. You will see great returns by doing this. If you are a business to business solicitor selling legal services and a client lands on your start-up services page, at the foot of that page you should again have one clear call to action. This could be Download our business start up guide or Request details of our fixed fee services or even Call us on XXX for our free business start up guide/details of fixed fee services. Designers are creative people and like to create new works of art every single time they design a website. This is what provides them with their job satisfaction. They like to create something new and exciting and beautiful every single time. Unfortunately, when it comes to website design and layout there is a formula which works and which we have tried and tested on 1stClaims and other sites which I do not deviate from. Obviously, this frustrates my fantastic designer as, not surprisingly, he is not into colouring by numbers, but I have to be strong as this formula always produces results for my clients. The design layout is as follows: 1. Logo top left position (first thing seen on page so confirms that they are in the right place) 2. Navigation on the left hand side of the page 3. Content in the centre of the page 4. Right hand column with your Call To Action repeated This is best demonstrated by a sketch so please see LMP 11 So many times on solicitors websites there is simply no clear call to action at the foot of each page. If a prospect has taken the time to visit your website and to read your content please make sure you tell them what action you would like them to take at the end of the page. If you do not know, how will your prospect ever know? Layout The design layout of your website is another crucial factor. Whilst writing this I am acutely aware that my fantastic designer who will be turning my ramblings into a beautiful document for you to download, will be reading this, and I am sure he will do so with a smirk on his face. Logo Your logo should be in the top left hand corner of the website as this is the first thing that will be seen. If someone is looking for your company specifically, this will confirm they have found you. Ideally, if you have a client focused strap line, this should appear under your logo. Please see Lesson 1 if you have not yet defined your service (I did say it would be used in all that we do together as it will help you to sell more of your services).
Navigation I prefer left hand navigation which gives a lot more room for multiple pages (and your website should be at least 100 pages in total although it can start off with as little as 3 or 5 (but it must grow)). However, you could also have a form of top navigation as well as left navigation or even instead of, but my preference is certainly for left navigation. Content Solicitors regularly tell me that you should not have a large amount of content on your website pages. This is completely inaccurate. You need to put yourself in the position of your prospective clients (Clients First). If they are in need of a solicitor they are normally in a position of necessity or even fear (litigation, moving home, personal injury claims, probate etc). If they are looking to choose a solicitor over the Internet as many more people are now doing, they need enough information on your website to believe that you are experts in the field of law in which they need your assistance. You cannot achieve this in one or two paragraphs of copy (which is the correct term for your words as opposed to text ). In addition, another reason why you need good content on your page is that Google Loves It. When deciding whether to send website traffic to your page or your competitors, Google s robot will read the content on both of your websites. If you have 100 words on your page and your competitor has 300 to 600 words, even if many other aspects of your website are correct, the traffic is likely to go to your competitor. There have been countless and countless tests on websites comparing short copy and long copy and long copy always, always wins. Therefore, every page should be between 400 to 600 words in length, with a clear call to action at the end of each page. Please when drafting your content, ensure that every page is crafted around the PASTOR system (see LMP 6 ) to ensure that you have a much better chance of obtaining leads from your website. Using this system will strengthen the message and ensure you focus on the one action you want your client to take on each page. Right hand column The beauty of marketing is that so often it is so simple yet many people try to complicate it. I believe one of the reasons I am good at marketing is because I can cut through the general clutter and see the simple answer. All of the best marketing is simple, and when it comes to your website, one of the best lessons you can learn is by copying one of the most successful websites. Amazon is a huge retailer on the Internet and grows year on year exponentially. One thing has not changed since they first designed their website. Would you like to know what it is? On the right hand side of all of their purchase pages near to the top they have their Buy Now button. There is a reason for this. It works best in this position. If someone lands on your page and within the first two paragraphs is quickly able to assess that you are a firm they want to contact they should be able to click on the right hand side to take the action you expect them to take on that page as quickly as possible.
Therefore, even though you might have 300 to 600 beautifully crafted words on the page (as I am sure you will have after applying this Lesson) if you have done your work in the opening paragraphs and convinced them that you are the right firm for them they must be able to go straight to your enquiry form or data capture form. For an example of this in practise, please visit 1stClaims (LMP 12) and you will see once again, as always, I practise what I preach. We have left hand navigation, central content with plenty of content on each page and always a call to action at the top right hand side of the page. These are the key factors for your website. I would strongly urge you to review your website completely and make the changes mentioned in this lesson. I realise this may involve some time and expense but I assure you that it is a vital step in turning your website into a lead generation machine. Additional points It is sensible to include testimonials from previously satisfied clients to endorse your expertise in each field of law. I have included in the bonus section a form for generating testimonials that help to endorse your services (rather than the standard testimonials which so often appear). These can sit below the call to action on the right hand side and whilst the client is reading the content in the centre of the page, will serve to confirm your expertise in this area of law.
Part 3 Implement If you are not able to make these changes to your website you will need to contact your website designer. If you have not been happy with their services or they have bee particularly possessive of the design (as is often the case), you may need to change your designer. Your website is going to become a vital resource for you so you must be able to make rapid changes to it. There are different ways of finding new website designers to help you, from finding freelance designers in your area (a Google search will reveal some results) to posting an assistance request on www.elance.com. Elance has thousands of website designers that could assist you in the changes you need to make to your website. Many of them work for a reasonable fee and you can agree a fixed fee with them in advance. Your designer should be able to integrate forms for data capture (whether they are using AWeber or another system). They will allow you to automatically send out your free reports to your prospects. W3C Validator http://validator.w3.org/ If your page has errors on it this may well affect your ability to obtain free traffic from Google. Any website designer of a reasonable quality should build every page so that it validates. Bonus Bonus 1 Instant online quotations I referred to instant online quotations in the main lesson, but I wanted to ensure that the point was reiterated here. If you currently have any instant online quotations or you provide your prices on the website page, I would strongly suggest that you change this to a form where you obtain your client s name, email address and telephone number and can follow up the enquiry regularly and consistently to give you a much better prospect of winning their business. An online quote removes any chance of interaction and forming a relationship so should be avoided at all costs When reviewing potential designers to help you with your website, you should ensure that they adhere to best practice and that the websites they have worked on in the past all meet W3C standards. It is easy to check this by going to the XHTML Validator. This is like Lexcel for your website. It checks to see that it has been built to the best practise standards and will tell you if there are any faults on the page that need fixing. Click below to test one of your website pages: Instant online calculation forms have always, in my experience, led to a reduction in the number of instructions obtained from a website. I want you to increase your instructions and profits and therefore would ask you to change your format if you are currently using instant quotations. Bonus 2 Obtaining testimonials that work So often testimonials are vague, uninspiring and look like they have been written by the service provider as opposed to their client. You need testimonials on your website that endorse your services by covering the whole journey of the prospect from pre-instruction through to the
10 successful conclusion of their legal matter by you. There are certain questions you can ask that will allow you to obtain these testimonials regularly and I would urge you to test them. When I introduce these to solicitors usually there is a feeling of apprehension but once you start to see the results that come in, you will understand why the testimonial generator is so powerful. The questions that you should use (with as little alteration as possible) are as follows: 1 What were your perceptions or concerns before you asked us to help you? 2 How has that perception changed since you instructed us? 3 What are the three biggest benefits of our service for you? 4 What would you tell other people (businesses) who are considering using our services? 5 What did you most like about our service? 6 Is there anything else you would like to add? I have put these into a form at LMP 13 One of the reasons this works so well is that it is following the PASTOR system. Rather than just saying that the client is happy with your service, they are starting with the problem that they were initially faced with. What were their concerns before they instructed you? Were they worried about your prices or did they think you would not be approachable? If one or two of your clients are thinking these thoughts then most others are as well so it is much better to face these issues through your testimonials. Imagine if you have a client on your site who is thinking of contacting you but is terrified that they will be charged from the minute they pick up the phone (many clients still hold this fear). If, whilst reading the content they see a testimonial on the right hand side which says the following, do you think this would take away this fear? Before I asked you to help me I was concerned that I would immediately incur legal fees. Once I contacted you, my mind was immediately put at rest. You were friendly, helpful and gave me total confidence that you could solve my problem for me in as quick a period of time as possible and for a fixed fee. I found the biggest benefit of your service to be your expertise in this area which meant that the matter was resolved far more quickly than I could have anticipated. I would strongly recommend you to friends and family. Can you see how a testimonial phrased in that way can be so much more effective than a general glib testimonial? If you are still not convinced please test out these questions. The next time you conclude a matter and the client is happy with your service immediately send them an email and ask them to respond to these questions (or even better ask the questions by telephone and record their answers for their testimonial (in writing or with a dictation machine)). It is important in all marketing and in all of the methods that I teach you that you do not let your own assumptions prevent you from finding an incredibly powerful marketing resource. Test everything and let the results be the judge and jury.
Coming Up In The Next Issue Next month I am going to take you behind the scenes to teach you the crucial back end skills of your website. You must know these, not so that you can make all of the changes yourself, but so that you can manage those that are controlling your website to ensure it will achieve all that it should for you. I will teach you how to obtain free traffic, how to ensure your website is built for Google as well as human visitors, and how to use every page for data capture. This is a lesson not to be missed! 11